“The traffic light is required to act quickly,” says the CSU chairman.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin In view of the sharp rise in prices, the CSU chairman Markus Söder calls on the coalition negotiators of the SPD, Greens and FDP to reduce VAT on energy and fuels.
“We have to meet the citizens in terms of tax in these difficult times,” said the Bavarian Prime Minister of “Bild am Sonntag”. “A reduced VAT rate on energy and fuels would relieve the citizens of the worst hardships.”
The President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Marcel Fratzscher, rejected the move. A reduction in VAT “would be the most damaging thing politicians can do, ecologically, economically and socially,” Fratzscher told Handelsblatt.
“The demand shows a lack of understanding of how climate protection works and what politics must do to promote it.” According to Fratzscher, the price of fossil fuels must rise and not fall, “so that companies and people change their behavior where they do it can be comparatively easier. ”
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At the same time, the DIW boss called for government support for low-wage earners so that they can cope with the sharp rise in energy costs. “To relieve people on low incomes who are hit hard by higher energy prices, politicians should pay them money directly,” he said.
“Above all, however, it should end the subsidies of 70 billion euros annually for fossil fuels, especially since these mainly benefit people with high incomes and are therefore a redistribution from the bottom up.”
The CSU chairman Söder also called for a price brake for the winter and a gas strategy that secures the supply of Germany. With a view to the newly built but not yet commissioned Russian-German natural gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea, he said: “This also includes the commissioning of Nord Stream 2. The traffic lights need to act quickly.”
In the conversation with the “Bild am Sonntag”, Söder also criticized the government participation of the Greens and the FDP. He warned that the involvement of the two parties could drive society apart further.
“You have to be careful that the traffic lights don’t divide our society. (…) There is a threat of a coalition of supposedly know-it-alls from the Greens and higher earners from the FDP. “One thing is foreseeable:” This coalition stands for more immigration, more debt and higher costs. “
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